


Synergy

by Bette



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bette/pseuds/Bette
Summary: I really enjoyed your note in your prompt about parties coming together, and this is my attempt at showing one example of this happening with a few of my own characters from past D&D games.





	Synergy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brilligspoons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilligspoons/gifts).



**Eurissa "Ris" Cutter, Human Rogue**

"What do you think you're going to do out there?" Tal stands in the doorway to their rented room, watching her as she packs her bag. "Forests? You'll get lost. Rivers? You'll drown!" 

Ris rolls her eyes at him and pushes her messy brown hair out of her face, then thinks better of it and starts pulling it up to bind it instead. "I'm not staying in the forests. And there's paths through them, you giant ass."

Tal has known her almost her entire life. For sixteen years, he had taken care of her when no one else would, taught her how to survive on her own in the city, and right now he doesn’t look like he believes her at all. Ris frowns up at the much taller half-orc and then shrugs a little and ends up sitting down on top of her threadbare bed instead. 

"I just want to see more of the world than being stuck here in Port," she finally says. "You know that. Besides, I've learned everything I can here without getting arrested." 

"The Guild could – " He beings, and finally she cuts him off. "The Guild isn't! Not for me, and not for you. They know who we are and they haven't said a damned word to either of us. So I could just stay here waiting for things to get easier for us, or I could go out and do something about it." She pauses just long enough to look almost hesitant, then adds quietly, "You could always come with me." 

She knows he'll think about it, just like she knows he'll say no. They have already had this conversation a hundred times. The difference, this time, is that this time she _actually is_ leaving in the morning.

She isn't even to the city gates before she hears the familiar sound of swordplay.

*****

**Amaranthine Lual, Human Cleric of Wee Jas**

The riches that the little girls of the Pale dream of are simple. Thinks like full bellies and warm beds and toys they never need to share with their sisters. Amaranthine Lual dreams of rubies. 

As a child, she watched the Jasidin fires light on the horizon on the nights of a waxing moon and dreamed of a pale woman with a kind heat behind her blue eyes. Just to herself, to replace the one she has never known, she called the woman _mother_. 

At twelve, when the father of her blood was taken by slavers, Amaranthine hid and then walked forty miles to find the Jasidin temple that rose like a heaven above the jungle trees. 

She learns everything she can learn. Reads every book she can read. Collects and stores away every gem she is given. Death is a natural part of existence, it cannot be subverted or cheated, and through the teachings of her _karuth_ , Amaranthine learns the meaning of her dreams, and she learns to say goodbye. 

Seven years later, she walks through the ornate doors again with a single purpose, because Amaranthine Lual still dreams of The Ruby Sorceress, and she will earn her invitation to the Convocation or she will die trying. 

Two weeks later, her new black robes hang comfortably from her jewelry-adorned body as she walks through the streets of the strange port city, ruby adorned staff in hand. If thieves take a second look at her, the skulls inked into her hands, their ruby red eyes shining, send them toward easier marks.

*****

**Varron Lightjoy, Tiefling Fighter**

"I know you'll miss me, Ma! I'm just going to the market!" The tall, thin boy calls it out over his shoulder as he stumbles out of the unfamiliar inn and into streets that are even less familiar. At seventeen and with a lifetime spent in the back of a merchant's caravan, he really ought to know his way around city streets better, but Varron Lightjoy has always been wary of the crowds in these larger cities. Not because he can't take care of himself, he's had to learn the hard way that people will judge him on his horns and tail long before they'll let themselves get to know him, but cities area always so _crowded_ , and Varron has also learned that he prefers the open space of the road. 

Because in the open space of the road brigands don’t surround you in dark corners, and Varron knows he shouldn't be surprised, because the clothes he is wearing practically scream _merchant_ and the purse at his belt says that he is obviously a good mark, and the horns he is a little too proud to ever try to hide say that they can do whatever they would like to him in these streets and very few people would probably care. 

They aren't expecting his skill with his rapier, but Varron only fights to protect himself and not to hurt them, and there are too many of them for that to be an effective strategy. 

"Give it up, boy," they call. "And we won't hurt you." He's almost resigned himself to handing over the purse and hoping that they're telling the truth when one of them screams in pain, and while the rest of them scatter Varron looks up over the dagger sticking out of the speaker's shoulder and sees the most beautiful girl he's ever laid eyes on and, standing behind her, a priest like nothing he's ever seen. 

He can't wait to introduce them to his mother.

*****

They're an unlikely group, and they know it. When Ris and Amaranthine join Varron's caravan at first it is only because it seems like the best way to get out of town. When they all realize that none of them really know where they're going… well, it seems easy then to join together, at least long enough to make it to the next city, and then, after an encounter with a highwayman leaves them laughing, and an accidental drunken night in an inn leaves them friends in trouble with Varron's mother, it's simple to go on to the next town together too.

Ris picks pockets, and gets them in too much trouble with local guards, and always seems to be looking to make someone she'll never talk about pay attention, but if anyone looks at Varron sideways for his horns she makes sure that they feel the prick of her daggers to learn their lesson. 

Amaranthine often forgets that clerics are generally expected to heal their friends after combats, and preaches a little too often about The Green Lady for her friends. The first time she raises a willing undead, Ris refuses to speak to her for a week, but she still steals every ruby she sees for her as they travel just because she knows, even if she doesn't understand the significance, that Ama loves them. 

Varron doesn't learn to take pleasure in fighting, but he does learn to trust his friends, and when they finally break away from the caravan, he writes to his mother once a month to chronicle their adventures. Every letter begins the same way. _I know you'll miss me, Ma, but we're doing so many amazing things._


End file.
